Plastic containers are preferred for holding various products, such as beverages, because of their light weight and excellent impact resistance. These containers are often prepared by blow molding a thermoplastic preform in a blow mold. One commonly used thermoplastic resin is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which has high transparency, good gas-barrier property, a light weight, excellent impact resistance and an appropriate rigidity. PET is manufactured from ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid.
Polyethylene furanoate (PEF) is manufactured from furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and ethylene glycol. FDCA is produced from bio-based sugars. Although PEF is attractive for use in production of plastic containers, certain properties of PEF differ—impacting processing and container performance.
There remains a need for substantially bio-based polymers with properties optimized for their packaging applications.